carl rogers article

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychiatrist who agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, but added that to get a person to “grow”, they require an environment that gives them with credibility (openness and self-disclosure), popularity (being found with complete, utter, absolute, wholehearted positive regard), and accord (being listened to and understood). Without these, interactions and healthy personalities is not going to develop as it should, much like a tree is not going to grow with out sunlight and water. Rogers believed that many person can achieve their desired goals, wishes and desires anytime.

When, or rather if they did so , do it yourself actualization happened. This was among Carl Rogers most important advantages to psychology and for a person to get to their potential a number of elements must be happy.

Self Actualization

“The organism provides one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain, and enhance the encountering organism” (Rogers, 1951, l. 487). Rogers rejected the deterministic character of both equally psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained that people behave as we all do due to way we all perceive the situation.

“As no one else can know how we all perceive, we could the best authorities on ourself. ” Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic objective, that is the trend to self-actualize – i. e. to satisfy one’s potential and attain the highest amount of ‘human-beingness’ we are able to. Like a flower that will grow to it is full potential if the circumstances are right, but which is constrained by simply its environment, so people will flourish and reach their potential if their environment is good enough. However , as opposed to a bloom, the potential of the human is unique, and we were made to develop in different ways relating to our individuality. Rogers believed that people will be inherently very good and creative. They become damaging only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the valuing method.

Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must have a state of congruence. Which means that self-actualization happens when a person’s “ideal self” (i. at the. who they would like to be) can be congruent with their actual patterns (self-image). Rogers describes somebody who is actualizing as a fully functioning person.  The key determinant of whether we will become self-actualized can be childhood knowledge. The Completely Functioning Person

Rogers believed that every person could achieve their desired goals wishes, and desires is obviously. When they succeeded self-actualization happened. For Rogers (1961) people who find themselves able be self-actualize, and that is not all of us, are called totally functioning people. This means that anybody is in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective experiences and feelings, continually growing and changing. In lots of ways Rogers regarded the fully functioning person as a perfect and the one that people do not ultimately attain. It is incorrect to think of this as a finish or completion of life’s voyage; rather it is just a process of always becoming and changing. Rogers identified five characteristics with the fully functioning person: 1 . Open to experience: both great and bad emotions acknowledged. Negative emotions are not rejected, but worked through (rather than resort to ego protection mechanisms). installment payments on your Existential living: in touch with different experiences because they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceived ideas.

Being able to live and totally appreciate the present, not always looking back to earlier times or toward the future (i. e. living for the moment). 3. Trust emotions: feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are paid attention to and reliable. People’s personal decisions are the right ones and we ought to trust themselves to make the right choices. four. Creativity: creative work and risk taking happen to be features of someone’s life. Person does not play safe at all times. This involves the cabability to adjust and alter and search for new experience. 5. Achieved life: person is happy and content with life, and always looking for fresh challenges and experiences. Intended for Rogers, completely functioning folks are well altered, well balanced and interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society. Critics claim that the fully performing person is actually a product of Western tradition. In other cultures, such as Asian cultures, the achievement of the group is highly valued more highly than the achievement of any one person. Persona Development

Central to Rogers’ personality theory is the notion of home or self-concept. This is understood to be “the prepared, consistent group of perceptions and beliefs regarding oneself”. The self is a humanistic term for who have we really are as a person. The home is each of our inner persona, and can be likened to the heart, or Freud’s psyche. The self is definitely influenced by the experiences a person has in their life, and out interpretations of those activities. Two major sources that influence our self-concept are childhood experience and analysis by others. According to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are in line with our self-image and which will reflect what we would like to wind up as, our ideal-self. The deeper our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more steady or consonant we are as well as the higher the sense of self-worth. You happen to be said to be within a state of incongruence if perhaps some of the totality of their experience is undesirable to these people and is refused or distorted in the self-image. The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts unique to ourselves.

The self-concept comes with three components: Self worth (or self-esteem) – that which we think about themselves. Rogers assumed feelings of self-worth produced in early childhood and had been formed through the interaction from the child with all the mother and father. Self-image – How we see yourself, which is essential to good psychological health. Self-image includes the influence of our body image on inner individuality. At an easy level, we may perceive yourself as a advantages or disadvantages person, amazing or unsightly. Self-image has an affect how a person thinks feels and behaves in the world. Ideal self – This is the individual that we would like to get. It includes our desired goals and plans in life, and is also dynamic – i. e. forever changing. The ideal personal in child years is certainly not the ideal do it yourself in our young adults or overdue twenties and so forth Self Worth and Positive Regard

Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two fundamental needs: positive regard from other people and self-worth. The way we think about themselves, our feelings of self-worth are of fundamental importance both to psychological health insurance and to the probability that we can achieve goals and ambitions anytime and accomplish self-actualization. Self-worth may be seen as an continuum via very high to very low. Intended for Carl Rogers (1959) an individual who has high self-worth, that is certainly, has confidence and confident feelings about him or her self, encounters challenges in life, accepts inability and disappointment at times, and is also open with individuals. A person with low self-worth may well avoid issues in life, not accept that life may be painful and unhappy at times, and will be defensive and guarded with other people. Rogers believed thoughts of self-worth developed at the begining of childhood and were formed from the connection of the child with the father and mother. As a child increases older, connections with significant others can affect feelings of self-worth. Rogers believed that we should be regarded absolutely by other folks; we need to feel valued, well known, treated with affection and loved. Confident regard is to do with how others evaluate and judge us in sociable interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional confident regard and conditional confident regard. Absolute, wholehearted positive consider is wherever parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) welcomes and enjoys the person for what he or she is. Positive regard is usually not withdrawn if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.

The effects of absolute, wholehearted positive regard are which the person feels free to try things out and make a few mistakes, even though this may lead to getting it worse at times. People who find themselves able to self-actualize are more likely to have obtained unconditional great regard via others, especially their parents in years as a child. Conditional great regard is definitely where great regard, compliment and authorization, depend upon the child, for example , acting in ways which the parents believe correct. Hence the child can be not adored for the individual he or she is, yet on condition that he or she reacts only in ways approved by the parent(s). In the extreme, an individual who constantly tries approval from other people is probably only to have experienced conditional confident regard as a child. Congruence

Someone’s ideal personal may not be according to what truly happens anytime and activities of the person. Hence, an improvement may are present between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is certainly called incongruence. Where a person’s ideal self and genuine experience happen to be consistent or perhaps very similar, a state of justesse exists. Almost never, if ever will do a total condition of congruence exist; all people experience some incongruence. The development of congruence relies on absolute, wholehearted positive consider. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must maintain a state of congruence.

According to Rogers, we want to truly feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which will reflect whatever we would like to be like, our ideal-self. The better our self-image and ideal-self should be each other, the more consistent or congruent our company is and the larger our perception of self-worth. A person is considered in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image. Incongruence is “a discrepancy between your actual connection with the patient and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it signifies that experience. Even as we prefer to discover ourselves in ways that are according to our self-image, we may use defense mechanisms like denial or repression to be able to feel less threatened by simply some of that which we consider to get our undesired feelings. A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his actual feelings and experiences will certainly defend since the truth is painful. Carl Rogers Quotes

“When I glance at the world Now i’m pessimistic, but when I take a look at people I am optimistic. ” “The very fact of the creative is its novelty, and therefore we have simply no standard by which to judge it” (Rogers, 61, p. 351). “I have gradually arrive to one negative conclusion regarding the good life. It seems to me that the great life is not any fixed condition. It is not, within my estimation, a state of advantage, or satisfaction, or �lys�e, or joy. It is not a problem in which the specific is modified or happy or actualized. To use mental terms, it is not necessarily a state of drive-reduction, or perhaps tension-reduction, or homeostasis” (Rogers, 1967, g. 185-186). “The good life is a process, not only a state to be. It is a path not a destination” (Rogers, 1967, p. 187). References

Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Effects and Theory. London: Policier. Rogers, C. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in the Client-centered Structure. In (ed. ) T. Koch, Mindset: A Study of any Science. Volume. 3: Preparations of the Person and the Interpersonal Context. New York: McGraw Hillside. Rogers, C. R. (1961). On To become Person-A Psychotherapists View of Psychotherapy. Rogers, C. 3rd there�s r., Stevens, M., Gendlin, Electronic. T., Shlien, J. Meters., & Van Dusen, T. (1967). Person to person: The problem to be human: A fresh trend in psychology. Lafayette, CA: Real persons Press.

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